Not even GNOME itself could ignore the GNOME 3 criticism for much longer. "As part of the planning for the DropOrFixFallbackMode feature, we've decided that we will compile a list of supported gnome-shell extensions. This will be a small list, focused on just bringing back some central 'classic' UX elements: classic alt tab, task bar, min/max buttons, main menu. To ensure that these extensions keep working, we will release them as a tarball, just like any other module."

As I said above, there was more than one thread on it by far. There was also heated chatter on Google+ about it.

Once again, my problem was with the childishness of it all rather than the changes themselves. I like the switch to systemd and the new installer was a non-issue for me. My problem was purely with the negative attitudes of those involved.